Can a Repro be made of any NES Game?

[ReddMcKnight]

I'm curious because I'd like to know if there's an Action 52 (NES) Repro out there. I know the Cartridge's Board was unique, so that's why I want to know. As for why I actually want it...Well, to put it simply, I want to prove a point to a friend of mine. Heh.

[Flake]

A lot of unlicensed games were 'unique' in that they would purposely shock the 10NES chip when it was detecting whether or not the cartridge was legit. As I recall, Tengen was pretty notorious for this.

I cannot think of any reason why any specific rom wouldn't work on a reproduction cart, though. You should ask Ziggy.

[Ziggy]

The NES isn't my particular field of expertise, though I'll tell ya what I know. A "repro" in the traditional sense, for Action 52, isn't possible. Unless I'm missing something. If some one could hack it into a standard mapper then it might be possible (I'm not even sure if that's possible) but otherwise not. I checked it on the NES Cart DB and apparently it uses mapper 228, and it's the only cart that does. So it's not like there's a compatible donor cart out there that you could use to make a repro of it. It's a fairly unique cart, too. It uses that CIC stun method, and whatever freaky mapper they came up with. The really unique part is that it has four 4Mb mask ROMs (apparently 3 PRG and one CHR). What's even stranger is that the PowerPak lists mapper 228 as good, but Action 52 isn't playable on the PowerPak due to the size (the PowerPak only has 4Mb for CHR and 4Mb for PRG) and since this is the only game (to my knowledge) that uses this mapper, it's strange that it's listed as good.

The only way a reproduction would be possible is if some one made up the PCB. As far as I know it's all stock parts, so if you got the custom PCB made up, it'd be dead simple after that. This is how Retro Zone makes his repros, so maybe he'll come out with an Action 52 repro one day. Maybe you could email him and ask. It would be very simple to do compared to his other repros. He would just have to get an Action 52 cart to copy and that's about it. I believe it has all off-the-shelf parts.

[Hobie-wan]

Seems like it would be a huge waste to create a repro of Action 52. It isn't like the games are worth a damn and it wouldn't be a real cart so it seems that any point you wanted to make would be doable in an emulator.

[Ziggy]

It isn't like the games are worth a damn

Oh, is that a fact? I guess it's just the collectibility that makes it go for high numbers?

[3GenGames]

Unless you get boards made in about 100 board lots, no, just buy the game.

[Ziggy]

Getting the boards made up wouldn't cost too much, even in small numbers. I've shopped around a little, and it can definitely be affordable. Getting the plastic cart shells made up though, that's another story. But since Retro Zone already has cart shells, making a PCB for Action 52 would be cake. If one was so inclined, you could make a PCB that would fit in an original NES cart shell. However, if there's no playability for this cart then a repro would definitely be for the birds.

[3GenGames]

But to get the first board made will cost about $300 for the mold and stuff. But in lots of like...200, they can be around $2 each, which isn't anything for a board, but you still have to pay the inital costs. Those figures are from NESDev though for boards, not me. Only what I've been told.

[Ziggy]

Nah, it's not always true. I mean, maybe some places charge that much. But there's some places I've seen that are a lot more affordable. There's usually always a quantity discount. But I'm looking to get maybe 5-10 of a custom PCB made up to start with and I think the quote was for less than $10/board. I can't recall exact numbers right now, it was a few months back, and it's 8am right now. But there was no start up cost. Maybe you're thinking of getting molds made up for plastic stuff? Getting the cart shells made up, they're not actually all that much, but getting the molds made can cost a couple grand.

[3GenGames]

Yep, each plastic mold costs about 5 Grand. Here's link to the article, and this guy makes a new board probably every week and is doing some secret stuff I can't say right now, but price is about $2/board+starting costs. Maybe it's because they're production-type boards?


I can't seem to find the topic right now, but that's what they've been said to cost. If you can get them for a lot less, I'd buy some for $2 each later on. Haha. Oh well.

A52 though is a big board, but IIRC, It's just a big logic mapper, so you might be able to get it to something about the size of the MMC1 Retropak on retrousb. All logic in one small chip instead of each chip separately.